Author Topic: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric  (Read 24730 times)

JohnS

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Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« on: August 11, 2013, 01:20:46 am »
Emre,

While getting the data from an existing system to load into SambaPOS, I have found a few issues. Now these issues are more due to an Inventory System v's a POS System kind of barcoding, and staff stupidity.

They use alphanumeric Code39 barcodes on their products which is the supplier part# for the most part, for example
MBTX4U
11-MCJ-42
33-55-108
43-HF1-34
9341913087766
A0341M29579
S12XC90/90-21

Now the majority of the barcodes scan ok, but this is what I have found
1. If the barcode has an 'X' in it, it will not scan - X means quantity to the NumberPad so this is understandable
2. If the barcode has '-1' or '-2', etc in it, it removes the '-' and adds it to the front of the scanned barcode - No match
3. If the barcode has '-0' first then '0-1', etc, it works ok.

Now my first idea was, most products have EAN barcodes, so lets just relabel all products (yes every product has a custom barcode), but there is 4000 products :( and the EAN barcode is not in the old system.
Further to this, some product descriptions are very generic and duplicated too - more cleanup of the data required.

Is there any workaround for these issues, or do I need to suck it up and do it all from scratch properly.
SambaPOS - POS'n the World, one Terminal at a time.

emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2013, 04:04:47 pm »
Haha I've implemented dynamic / parametric usages for everything I've hardcoded in V2 but we still have things that needs to be improved. I couldn't find a quick workaround but we can improve barcode handling in next releases.

JohnS

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2013, 07:39:03 am »
Could we use a user definable prefix to tell the NumberPad not to modify what is scanned. Like using # as a prefix?
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emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2013, 03:31:23 pm »
Maybe we should not modify it at all. I have to do something to easily configure such things for flexible configuration or we'll have a prefix hell :)

emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2013, 04:44:49 am »
Can we say if X is upper case it is barcode? I'm planning to add a setting for "quantity separators" and it will have default value of "x,X". If all barcode is uppercase you can clear upper case X and use lower case x for quantity separator. It will mean 2x4XDFL234 will execute 4XDFL234 barcode with quantity 2

emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2013, 06:10:01 am »
OK. I've coded it :) If it does not solve our problem we can try another solution.

JohnS

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2013, 07:14:22 am »
That should work well. I always use upper case for barcodes.

What about '-1' etc within the barcode? The '-' is moved to the front of the barcode automatically if it is followed by a number other than zero.
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emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2013, 01:00:35 pm »
I've just handled it too. Thank you for the reminder :)

JohnS

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2013, 01:19:11 am »
Please stop teasing :) When can I test ?
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emre

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JohnS

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2013, 04:38:28 am »
:D
Looking really good. Works with everything I can throw at it.
Tomorrow morning I will test with live data. If all goes well, we will launch next Monday :)

Thank you so much.
SambaPOS - POS'n the World, one Terminal at a time.

emre

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2013, 06:39:11 am »
Great... let me watch the fireworks :)

JohnS

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Re: Barcoding Issues with Alphanumeric
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2013, 11:36:08 pm »
So far not one issue. Except for stock not in the system :(
Installing the system this afternoon for testing and training :)
SambaPOS - POS'n the World, one Terminal at a time.